Bible Reading Notes May 2019 – 2 Chronicles These notes are easy to install on most phones or tablets. Install the ‘PrayerMate’ App and you’ll find it under ‘subscribe to online feeds’ and ‘Devotional’. It’s called St Philemon’s Bible Notes. If you have any problems, email [email protected]. How to use these Bible reading notes These Bible reading notes are a resource to help you dig into God’s word and allow it to change your life. ‘A little and often’ is a good motto. If you miss a day (or several!), don’t feel guilty; just pick up wherever the notes have got to. Here’s a guide to get the most out of these notes: 1. Find a time and place where you can be quiet but awake. 2. Ask God to help you understand. 3. Use the notes to help you think about the passage: · ‘Read’ sections get you thinking for yourself about the verses. · ‘Apply’ sections suggest how they make a difference to you. 4. Pray about what you have read. 5. Look for an opportunity to share with someone what God has told you. Wednesday 1 May Who are we? The books of Chronicles were written after God’s people had returned from exile in Babylon. They were a smaller, weaker, scared nation, and the unnamed Chronicler is trying to remind them who they are! He does that by looking back over Israel’s past, with some particular focuses. In the first book the Chronicler took us from Adam to king David. We pick up the story with David’s son, Solomon. Read 2 Chronicles 1:1-17 The kings of Israel are one of the Chronicler’s big focus to explain who Israel really are. • What clues do we get about Solomon’s priorities in this passage? What’s his attitude to God? • How does God respond to this? What is the result for Solomon? For the people of Jerusalem? • What do you think the Chronicler wants to teach the smaller people of Israel about the importance of the kings to the nation? Apply The kings of the Old Testament point forward to the greatest king and son of David, Jesus. • How does Solomon in this passage foreshadow Jesus? (think about his attitudes/priorities etc.) • What will be the result for us of having such a king? Pray – thank God for a king who values wisdom and God over riches for himself. Thursday 2 May Two buildings The two buildings in this chapter help us think about the two institutions that the Chronicler wants to tell us are central to the existence and salvation of God’s people. Read 2 Chronicles 2:1-10 (Tyre was a nearby allied nation to Israel.) • What are the two buildings that Solomon will build? • What does the first building need to be like? Why does it need to be built that way? What is it for? Read 2 Chronicles 2:11-18 We don’t hear much about the palace, but we do hear about the king who will live there. • What’s the relationship between God, King Solomon and his people, according to King Hiram? Apply Sometimes we can be short-sighted about God’s blessings and doubt his love for us. • How does God show his love for his people in 2 Chronicles? How might this help us when we feel hard done-by by God? Pray – thank God for his love for us, and for the relationship between us, our King and God. Friday 3 May The House of the LORD Bear in mind the word ‘temple’ in Hebrew is same as the normal word for ‘house’. Read Chapter 3:1 Araunah’s threshing-floor was where David had sacrificed to God to ask forgiveness for a sin that had brought God’s anger and judgement on Israel, and where God forgave him and stopped his judgement there and then. • Why do you think David and Solomon thought this was a fitting place to build the temple? Read Chapter 3:3-7, 10-12, 4:1-5, 7, 16-18, 19-22, 5:1 (and all of 3:2-5:1 if you have time) Try to imagine yourself inside the temple as you read. • What’s the purpose of the temple (remember what the word means)? • How are the materials of the temple fit for that purpose? What would it have been like? What does that tell us about the God who would dwell there? Apply • Put together what we learn about God from v1 and from the rest of the chapter. Why is it good news that these things are true at once? • Do we have a view of God big enough that fits the temple and knows even that is too poor for God’s house? (1:6) Pray – for a bigger and more complete view of God in light of that. Saturday 4 May Making a house a home The temple is done and it’s time to bring in the Ark, a symbolic footstool for God and so a sign of his presence. Read 2 Chronicles 5:2-14 The Ark had been travelling around for years in the Tent of Meeting. • What is the significance of bringing the Ark to the temple? • Who is there for it? What do you think this day would have been like to be a part of? • What happens at the end of the chapter? What does this mean for the people and the temple? Apply God promised Abraham that he would make his family into a people, with a land, under God’s blessing. • How do we see fulfilment of each of those promises in this passage? This passage points us to an even greater fulfilment of those promises in the future. • How does this passage help us look forward more to that fulfilment? What will God’s presence look like for us in the future? (See Revelation 21:1-5) Pray Pray looking forward to the day we see that greater fulfilment. Sunday 5 May Settling down God has come to dwell in the temple that Solomon had built – and now Solomon tells what that means. Read 2 Chronicles 6:1-12 • What had God not done before that he has done now? • Why does that make this such a big moment in Israel’s history? (Think about the fundamental difference between the Tent of Meeting and the Temple – why is that so important?) The time of Saul and David was a time of regular war. • How might God’s promise to David have felt to an ordinary Israelite at that kind of time? Apply • How are our times like the time of David? (see Ephesians 6:12) How do we see that in our lives? • From yesterday, what can we look forward to that’s even greater than the temple? (Rev 21:1-5) When do you find it most difficult to do that? • How does today’s passage help us at those times? How could we call it to mind? Pray Ask God to help you trust his promise of future eternal peace even in the spiritual war of today. Monday 6 May He stood… and then knelt We’re still at the high-point of the Old Testament as God settles to dwell permanently with his people, and the dynasty of great king David, is on the throne. Read 2 Chronicles 6:12-17 The platform is about 8ft long and wide and 5ft high. • What would you think a person is saying about themselves by standing on a big bronze platform like this? • What does Solomon do that’s surprising therefore? What does Solomon say about God? What does he say about his family? • Why do you think Solomon’s attitude is good news for Israel? Apply • Think of the things you’ve done and built (family, career, ministry, anything you’re proud of). Do you have the same attitude that Solomon has to his family and the temple? How might our approach to such things look different if we did? Pray asking God for the eyes to see that every good thing we have is from him by grace. Tuesday 7 May May your eyes be open The temple and the throne are the key parts of Israel’s true identity for the Chronicler. This passage helps understand the place of the temple in Israel. Read as much of 2 Chronicles 6:18-42 as you can. 6:18-21, 26-27, 32-33, 40-42 if you’re pressed for time. • What does Solomon know about the temple? (v18) • What does it mean for it to be God’s dwelling-place if it can’t contain him? (v20-21) • Across the rest of the passage, what is the place of the temple in the people’s relationship with God? What happens if you pray in it or toward it? Why? Apply The temple has long been destroyed. • What is the equivalent for us today? (John 2:19-22) • How does this help us to understand the place of Jesus for us? (Try substituting him into the passage). Pray In Jesus name. Remember that if you come in Jesus name, if you ‘turn towards him’, then God will hear from heaven and forgive us, do what we ask (if it is in his will) and uphold our cause. Wednesday 8 May Fear and joy Solomon has just asked that God hear his people’s prayers and have his eyes open to the Temple.